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City To Create Earthquake Safety Rating System For Buildings
Earthquake damage in Pomona in 2008 (Photo by sundogg via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
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In his first State of the City speech, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on Thursday that he is creating a rating system to measure the safety of buildings throughout the city in the event of a major earthquake. The rating system would be the first of its kind in the country and will be created under the expertise of USGS seismologist Lucy Jones, with whom Mayor Garcetti's administration partnered with back in January.
The announcement, which comes in the wake of two noteworthy minor earthquakes to hit the region recently, was also made in conjunction with plans to retrofit many of the older buildings in Los Angeles that have not yet been upgraded out of cost concerns, reports KPCC. Mayor Garcetti warned in his speech:
"Some critics say the cost of those upgrades may be high. But as we saw with Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, the cost of being unprepared is much higher."
Outside of the announcements, details on how either plans would work have yet to be released.
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